Vanessa Redgrave Recalls Unapologetic Political Speech at 1978 Oscars: “I Had to Do My Bit”

The Venice Film Festival's lifetime achievement honoree reflects on her comments in which she congratulated the Academy for standing up to "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums" who had attacked her for producing and appearing in a documentary about Palestine.

Vanessa Redgrave doesn’t mince her words. To speak with the 81-year-old actress, as THR did by phone at her home in Italy, ahead of her Aug. 30 lifetime achievement award ceremony in Venice, is to be constantly taken aback by her candor, by turns gently arch ("Scotto, Scotto, Scotto, not so fast," she chides after one poorly phrased question) and disarmingly blunt ("The politicians, across Europe and the United States, with very few notable exceptions, are working to destroy people's lives, plain and simple").

After making her screen debut at age 21 in the forgettable medical thriller Behind the Mask (her father, Michael Redgrave, was the film's lead), Redgrave went on to collect virtually every acting honor available, including an Oscar for best supporting actress (for Julia in 1978), a Golden Globe, the Emmy, the Tony, the BAFTA and awards in Venice and Cannes.

But she originally planned to be a dancer. "I wanted that more than anything, but it became clear it wouldn't work, that I would be too tall," says Redgrave, a stooped 6 feet in stockings.

She's been at the center of several of cinema's most influential movements, from Europe's new wave of the 1960s with films like Michelangelo Antonioni's Blow-Up (1966) (“Antonioni is a terrific man and a real artist. I felt he was somewhat glorious.”) to the avant-garde cinema of Ken Russell and his anarchic Catholic drama The Devils (1971). But for Redgrave, her most memorable role, and the only one she still rewatches, is in Josh Logan's musical version of Camelot (1967).

“I was thrilled to bits to get that role,” she says. "It was a huge thing for me.”

For her stage work, both Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams named her "the greatest living actress of our times," and in Britain she's counted with the likes of Judi Dench and Ian McKellen as a national treasure.

Beyond acting, Redgrave has never been afraid to leverage her influence to champion political causes, no matter how radical or unfashionable they might seem at the time. Redgrave demonstrated against the Vietnam and Iraq wars; ran for political office in Britain as a member of the Trotskyist Workers Revolutionary Party (she lost); and, at age 80, directed her first film, the documentary Sea Sorrow, exploring the plight of refugees to Europe.

She faced an intense backlash after her 1978 Oscar acceptance speech, in which she congratulated the Academy for standing up to "a small bunch of Zionist hoodlums" who had attacked her for producing and appearing in a documentary about Palestine (some in the audience gasped, and others booed).

Her comments were directed at extremists in the Jewish Defense League, who had not only burned her in effigy but had offered a bounty to have her killed. There was even a firebombing at one of the cinemas showing the documentary. But the phrase “Zionist hoodlums” discredited Redgrave for many — even if she concluded her speech promising "to fight anti-Semitism and fascism for as long as I live."

Forty years later, Redgrave is unapologetic.

"I didn't realize pledging to fight anti-Semitism and fascism was controversial. I'm learning that it is," she says, chuckling. Turning more serious, she notes that she has always felt a responsibility to speak out, no matter the consequences. "I had to do my bit," she says. "Everybody had to do their bit, to try and change things for the better. To advocate for what's right and not be dismayed if immediately you don't see results."

Redgrave points to her parents — actors Sir Michael Redgrave and Rachel Kempson — as her earliest inspiration, but also credits writers of the day, including the poet Cecil Day-Lewis and Howards End writer EM Forster, for shaping her political consciousness. Of the people she's worked with, she names African-American actor and activist Paul Robeson. One of Redgrave's first acting gigs was a “walk-on role and understudy” in a 1959 performance of Othello in Stratford-upon-Avon, where Robeson played the lead.

“He was wonderful, wonderful,” she recalls, “Paul played Othello and Tony Richardson directed it! So I have a sackful of people to admire and look up to there!”

Redgrave credits Richardson — “whom I married, as you know” — as having the greatest influence over her life as an actress, alongside Karel Reisz, the pioneering British realist director who cast her in such films as Morgan! (1966) and Isodora (1968).

“I hugely respected Tony and I hugely respected Karel Reisz. I took their points of view on film, on everything, to be remarkable. I just want to be associated with that and be worthy of it. It was more than just the work. It was more an attitude to life itself.”

That attitude, in part, is what's kept Redgrave working well into her eighth decade.

She recently wrapped up a starring run in Matthew Lopez's play The Inheritance, directed by Stephen Daldry, at the Young Vic in London, and a selection of her upcoming film work includes Adrian Nobel's Mrs. Lowry and Son co-starring Timothy Spall; The Aspern Papers from director Julien Landais, with Jonathan Rhys Meyers and her daughter Joely Richardson, which will premiere in Venice; and Christoph Waltz's directorial debut, Georgetown.

“I have a big mortgage, so I have to pay the bills!” Redgrave says matter-of-factly, before noting what a privilege it is, still, to be offered the chance to do good work. “It's still so rare. If you have the chance, well, you have to keep going at it.”

Pay Dues/Subscribe to The Worker

15 Mar 2019EU, EUROPEThe president of the European Parliament Antonio Tajani said “Mussolini? Before he declared war on the entire world, following Hitler; before he introduced racial laws… he did some positive things to build infrastructure in our country, he built roads, bridges, buildings, sports facilities and reclaimed large swaths of Italy from marshes. If we […]

RELEASE FROM THE PCP PRESS OFFICEPCP condemns the new putschist operation against Venezuela24 January 2019The Portuguese Communist Party vehemently condemns the new putschist operation, orchestrated and led by the USA, against Venezuela and the Venezuelan people which, by means of a bizarre «self-proclamation» of a puppet president, a so-called «interim President» - promoted by Trump […]

AKEL urges Government to defend International Law, the UN Charter and the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of statesAKEL C.C. Press Office, 31 January 2019As the operation to execute a coup d’état in Venezuela and the American threats issued against the country’s people and government are escalating, AKEL reiterates its solidarity with Venezuela […]

Viktor Tyulkin, First Secretary ofRussian Communist Workers Party Central CommitteeNovember 23-25 2018г. Athens, GreeceUnabridged text of RCWP contribution to the 20th International Meeting of Communist and Workers parties (solidnet): «Modern working class and its unions. Tasks of the political vanguard – communist and workers parties in the struggle against exploitation and imperialistic wars, for the rights […]

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 2 November 2018, NicosiaThe General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL Andros Kyprianou today sent a letter to the Minister of Education and Culture Costas Hambiaouris regarding the upsurge of nationalism – chauvinism in our education system.The letter is as follows:“It is with great concern and reflection that we note the […]

https://partyofcommunistsusa.org/hands-off-brasil-and-all-south-america-no-us-arms-for-brasil/The Party of Communists USA denounces in the most vociferous terms the sham election results in Brazil where the U.S. backed and financed fascist candidate Jair Bolsonaro has been declared the winner. This does not bode well for the Brazilian working class.PCUSA calls for the complete embargo of military aid to Brazil, which has yet […]

In defense of the democracy and the constitution of the citizen of 1988, the General Confederation of the Worker of Brazil - CGTB manifests its deep refusal to the candidacy of Jair Bolsonaro. This candidacy means the return of the dictatorship that has bled our country for 21 years and that we have overthrown with […]

Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali 1933-2018The Obituary of Comrade Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali, “The Man of Steel”by Comrade Ian P. BeddowesEric Mtshali (84) was born in Clermont, Durban, on 20th November 1933. Mtshali was a recipient of the National Order of Mendi for Bravery in Silver in recognition of the sacrifices and contribution he made in the South […]

Behind Donald Trump’s “America First” trumpet there are more coherent forces pushing for a redrawing of the international order. Trump may seem incompetent, but there is a logic to many of his actions – whether it be destabilising NATO or embracing Russia’s Vladimir Putin.A couple of US ideologues, professor Daniel Quinn Mills (long-time professor at […]

Middle East On 30 May, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights issued a press release condemning Israeli forces’ interception of a boat carrying Palestinian passengers as it was leaving Gaza sea port. The Great March of Return committee had announced a day before the establishment of a “boat for freedom and breaking the siege”, carrying patients and injured […]

https://www.blackagendareport.com/how-progressives-black-caucus-have-shrunk-almost-nothingPHOTO: Glen Ford /Black Agenda Report“The Democratic Party is a people-suppression mechanism.”The “Russiagate” hysteria is only the latest reason to conclude that the Democratic Party is the greatest institutional impediment to creation of mass “resistance” to onrushing war and never-ending austerity under late-stage capitalism. Last week’s vote on the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2019 […]

Today, ProPublica revealed the extent of problems at Sanitation Salvage, the largest private waste hauler in the Bronx. The revelations are a stark reminder of the need for fundamental reforms of the city’s commercial waste industry, through an exclusive commercial waste zone policy.Read "Hell on Wheels".The findings include fatal accidents, off-the-books workers, weak oversight, wage […]

AKEL C.C. Press Office, 14 May 2018, NicosiaAKEL denounces the murderous violence of the Israeli forces who are firing indiscriminately and killing dozens of civilian Palestinian protesters. The Palestinians are demonstrating on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of their uprooting, but also against the US decision to transfer their embassy to Jerusalem. Today alone, […]

PAME expressed its opposition to the recognition of Jerusalem as capital of Israel by the USA and condemned the new massacre of Palestinians by the Israeli army with a protest on Monday, May 14 at the Embassy of Israel in Athens.PAME with the Greek Committee for International Detente and Peace and WFTU denounced the USA transfer of their […]

The National Network On Cuba congratulates the people of Cuba on the just concluded electoral process. We offer warm greetings of solidarity to the new President, Miguel Díaz-Canel, and to the returning and newly elected members of the National Assembly and Council of State. We also join the Cuban people and many people throughout the […]

Pyongyang, April 10, 2018On the significant occasion of the 106th birthday (Day of the Sun - April 15, 1912) of the President Kim Il Sung, all the Koreanpeople and workers have looked back upon his life and immortal services rendered to the times and history most humbly, upholdingthe banner of independence for his whole life.Having embarked on the road of struggle for the country and people in his early teens, he authored the Juche idea, the gist of which is that the masses of the people are the masters and the driving force of the revolution and construction; in other words, it means […]

http: //www.vkpb.ruThe All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks (AUCPB) expresses a strong protest to the President and Government of the Republic of India in connection with the events in the state of Tripura, where the hooligan elements destroyed the monument to Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, the founder of the Soviet state, the leader of the world […]

LARGE RALLY OF THE KKE IN THESSALONICAThe working people of the Greek part of Macedonia declared their decision to escalate the struggle against the imperialist plans and dangers that they are bringing for the peoples of our country and the wider region, defying the rain and participating in mass and combative way in the large […]

The Communist Youth of Greece conducted its successful 12 Congress Feb 15-16, 2019. The Congress concluded with a solidarity with Venezuela event and a concert of revolutionary music, one song being a modern version of "Which Side Are You On." … Continue reading →

Written by JRCF and published from Overblog. The political and union clarification, the citizen debate closest to all the sectors in struggle is the best way to support the current impetuous popular uprising. "When those who are above cannot anymore, … Continue reading →